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Report - St. Josephs Orpanage, Preston - December 2015

28DL Full Member

This is one that's been on my list for a long while now but always been sealed or never got around to going up there. On hearing it was open again we popped to have a look. I'm sure more reports will come from here as there was 14 other explorers here at the time! Like a Xmas urbex get together

Place is fairly trashed now unfortunately and feel we were a few years too late on this one, lots of fire and water damage is slowly destroying this building but a good fun explore with some great people anyhow :)

The History

St Joseph’s Orphanage was opened in 1872 on the site of an ancient alms house, and St Joseph’s Hospital for the Sick Poor followed five years later.

They were built by wealthy widow Maria Holland, who gave £10,000 at a time when Preston had one of the worst mortality rates in the country, due to poor housing and low-paid mill workers. St Joseph’s Orphanage cared for 971 children before it closed in 1954.

Run by the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady Mother of Mercy, the orphanage was the first welfare provider for Roman Catholic girls in Preston, taking in up to 60 youngsters at a time in two dormitories.

After its closure, the top floor of the orphanage continued to serve as accommodation for the nuns who worked in St Joseph’s Hospital, known locally as Mount Street Hospital.

The hospital held collections to help pay for health care for poor patients. During the First and Second World Wars, they tended injured soldiers and, over the years, tens of thousands of babies were born at the hospital’s maternity unit. Legendary performer George Formby died at the hospital following a heart attack on March 6, 1961. The hospital closed when the last sisters left nursing in 1982. It later became a care home, which closed down more than ten years ago.

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